


The Photograph

by Lemurian_Cutie



Series: Three Ladies in a Valley [1]
Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Also a bit with established relationship, Background information for the farmer, F/F, Happy lesbian triad, Multi, Photography, Pre-Relationship, Stuck-up Haley, she gets better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:22:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23099281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lemurian_Cutie/pseuds/Lemurian_Cutie
Summary: While shopping at Pierre's the new farmer in town, Beth, spots a photograph of Haley's. Neither realized the impact that this would have on them through the years.
Relationships: Haley/Female Player (Stardew Valley), Haley/Leah (Stardew Valley), Haley/Leah/Female Player (Stardew Valley), Haley/Leah/Player (Stardew Valley), Haley/Player (Stardew Valley), Leah/Female Player (Stardew Valley), Leah/Player (Stardew Valley)
Series: Three Ladies in a Valley [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1660267
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40





	The Photograph

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! I got an idea for an ongoing story about the relationship between the farmer, Haley, and Leah, as the three of them grow closer together and fall in love. In this part we get to see an early interaction between the farmer and Haley. I also included a bit later on with the established relationship between all three of them, in part to give people of sense of where this series will go, and in part because I liked the fluff opportunity it gave me. Enjoy!

Year 1, Spring 4:

Beth sighed and wiped the sweat from her forehead. While she was happy to be out of Zuzu City and her terrible job there with Joja's marketing department she was still having difficulty adjusting to the physical demands of her new life as a farmer.

“Well, if it isn't our new farmer Beth!” Pierre greeted happily when she stepped into his store. “What can I do for you today?”

“I'd like to pick up some more seeds. I got my first batch of parsnips shipped last night, so I've got a bit of spending money.”

“You're looking tired already,” Pierre said, grabbing the seeds he had available for her to select from. “Busy morning?”

“Clearing up all the mess on the farm,” she said, nodding. Her grandfather's farm was still thoroughly overrun with all manner of weeds and rocks and worse that got in the way of her efforts to farm.

“Ugh,” Beth heard a disgusted snort from behind her. She recognized it immediately.

“Ah, Haley,” Pierre greeted, looking over Beth's shoulder. “I'll be with you shortly.”

“Sure, sure,” she said, sounding entirely too dismissive and haughty for Beth's tastes. While Haley was very beautiful, she had a major attitude problem that reminded Beth way too much of many of her coworkers from the city.

“I'll take these,” Beth said, grabbing a couple pouches of different seeds.

“Sure thing,” Pierre said, ringing up the farmer's purchase. “Anything else?”

Beth eyed the large backpack that was prominently displayed on the front counter. It looked not only larger, but sturdier than the one she brought with her from Zuzu city. Her current backpack was really no better than an enthusiastic purse. She wondered if perhaps the backpack was being displayed just because Pierre had seen Beth struggling with her own.

“If you're just going to stand around could you do it elsewhere,” Haley interrupted Beth's musings. “Some of us actually have things we want to get done today.”

Beth frowned, but composed herself before turning to face Haley, the same fake kind of smile she would have when talking with her bosses plastered on her face. “Oh, I'm sorry, I'll get out of your way.” She may not have liked Haley, but she didn't want to make enemies in her new life any quicker than she had to. She stepped aside, now in front of the backpack, and considered what she'd have to do to afford it.

“Did it come in?” Haley asked, walking up to the counter and setting down a designer purse on it.

“It did,” Pierre said, reaching underneath the counter. “Just got it in this morning.” He placed a large binder of some sort on the counter for Haley to examine. Beth glanced at it curiously. It was not a stylish binder. It was entirely nondescript. Beth was surprised.

She watched Haley open it, and saw that it was full of pages of empty photo sleeves. Haley examined it for a moment, feeling the sleeves and flipping through a bit, before reaching into her purse and pulling out a photograph. She placed it into the first sleeve, apparently checking the size, as well as if the photo would be likely to slip out, giving the binder a little shake.

“It'll do,” she said, pulling out a wallet from her purse. “That was 50g, right?”

Beth blinked. 50g for a binder like that seemed expensive. Maybe it was more for the sleeves than the binder? Were they supposed to be particularly good for preserving photos?

Haley noticed Beth staring at her purchase, and glared at her. “Do you mind?” she demanded.

“Sorry,” Beth said, looking at the photograph Haley had placed in the sleeve. “That's a nice photo. Did you take it yourself?”

The photo was of the forest, and if Beth wasn't mistaken it was specifically the forest just south of her farm. She could see trees, a bit of stream, and the rear of a dilapidated shack beyond the stream with sunlight dappled across the wood surface from the tree leaves.

Haley huffed. “What would a farmer know about photography in the first place?” She muttered that under her breath, and Beth wasn't sure she meant to say it out loud. Still, Haley's attitude was getting annoying. It wasn't like Beth had always been a farmer. Haley knew nothing about her, and yet here she was making assumptions. Beth had had enough.

“I say it's a nice photo, but really I mean the layout there is good. Well balanced. But it's pretty dull, color-wise. Almost all greens and browns, but they blend together too much and it just looks a bit muddled. If you really want that picture to look nice you should consider developing it in black and white. Your greens and browns will all be shades of grey and it'll emphasize the textures instead of the colors, and it'll also really help the dappled sunlight on the shack and stream stand out.”

She looked up to see Haley and Pierre both looking at her with surprised, slack-jawed expressions.

“But then again, what would I know about it? I'm just a farmer now. Not like I used to be a graphic designer for the advertising department of a major commercial business. Oh, wait. Yes, I actually was exactly that.” She hit her forehead lightly. “Silly me. I must've forgotten all about that from all my proximity to dirt over the past four days I've been a farmer.”

“I, uh,” Haley hesitated, looking between Beth and the photo she had in front of her. Finally she cleared her throat. “Well, I suppose I misjudged you,” she admitted, sounding a bit reluctant. “I... I'll try the photo in black and white.” She grabbed the receipt from Pierre, quickly shoving it into her purse, and grabbed her purse and binder as she hurried out, cheeks red from embarrassment or perhaps shame. She paused by the door briefly, looking over her shoulder at Beth. “Thanks,” she said quietly, before opening and hurrying out.

“Wow,” Pierre whistled. “I've never seen anyone take the wind out from Haley's sails that quickly before. Honestly, she could use someone who won't let her get away with that attitude. Maybe having you in town will be good for her.”

Beth shrugged. “I don't know. I'm just here to get away from my old life. Whatever happens, happens.” Even as she said that, Beth couldn't help but blush a little thinking about Haley. Maybe Beth had misjudged her as well. The blonde was actually pretty cute fleeing from the store. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to get to know her.

\----------

Year 3, Spring 1

“I've been curious for a while,” Leah said, looking at the black and white photo of a shack in the woods above the fireplace, “why this photo here? It's great, but I think you've done better,” she said, looking at Haley as the blonde groggily got out of bed.

“Huh?” Haley stood up and went to Leah, finally waking up enough to process her question. She smiled fondly as she looked at the photo. “That? That photo's special. It marks the moment when I decided to look at our girlfriend as more than just a dumb farmer,” she said, hugging Leah around the middle.

“Hey,” Beth called from the kitchen of their farmhouse, getting their attention. “I've got some breakfast for everybody. You'll need your strength. Remember, you both promised to help me clear the land so I can get all my spring crops planted today.”

“Of course,” Leah said, giving Beth a quick kiss on the lips as she went to the table.

“I hope you realize I only do this sort of work for the two of you,” Haley said, following and also giving Beth a kiss.

Beth grinned. “Aww, you're the best girlfriends I could ask for.”

She sat down at the table as Haley and Leah dug into their food.

“Hey,” Haley said, stopping eating for a moment. The other two looked at her curiously. “I don't think I say it enough but... I love you. Really. You both make me a better person.”

Smiles lit up the faces of the other two. “We love you too,” Beth said, grabbing one of Haley's hands.

“Always and forever,” Leah agreed, leaning her head against Haley's shoulder.

**Author's Note:**

> How did you like it? Make sure to leave comments and kudos, as they do encourage me to write more. I know Leah was barely involved in this, but this was mostly about getting Beth and Haley on speaking terms. You can probably expect similar Leah focused ones without much Haley in them in the series, as well as some with Haley and Leah but no Beth (and of course some with focus on all three). Just so everyone knows, this was a one-shot that won't have additional chapters added, but is the first part of a series that will have many one-shots in it (maybe the occasional longer fic too). So if you want to see more of this don't bother subscribing to this story, but subscribe to this series.
> 
> Also, no, I didn't just randomly pick three ladies to ship together. The common connection between the three of them should become more obvious with future stories. Also, this is a story I'm just doing for me, so sometimes I might write a lot for it and sometimes nothing. This isn't a series I'm going to make myself feel obligated to write more of (hence why it's a series with a bunch of individual stories rather than one long ongoing fic), but I do hope and expect to write more for this. While this series will probably mostly be for general audiences or teens, I may make an occasional venture all the way to explicit with this. We'll just have to see where things go.
> 
> Anyway, thank you again for taking the time to read this. I hope you liked it. Feel free to go ahead and suggest things you might want to see happen later in this series for me to consider in the comments.


End file.
